Packet (sea Transport)
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Packet boats were medium-sized boats designed for domestic mail, passenger, and freight transportation in European countries and in North American rivers and canals, some of them steam driven. They were used extensively during the 18th and 19th centuries and featured regularly scheduled service. When such ships were put into use in the 18th century on the Atlantic Ocean between Great Britain and its colonies, the services were called the
packet trade Generally, packet trade is any regularly scheduled cargo, passenger and mail trade conducted by ship. The ships are called "packet boats" as their original function was to carry mail. A "packet ship" was originally a vessel employed to carry post ...
. Steam driven packets were used extensively in the United States in the 19th century on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, supplying and bringing personnel to forts and trading posts.


History

Packet craft were used extensively in European coastal mail services since the 17th century, and gradually added cramped passenger accommodation. Passenger accommodations were minimal: transportation, "firing" (i.e. a place to cook), drinking water (often tasting of indigo or tobacco, which the water casks had previously held), and a place to sleep. Later, scheduled services were offered, but the time journeys took depended much on the weather. In 1724,
Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, trader, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel ''Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its ...
wrote about them in his novel '' Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress''. In the mid-18th century England, the King maintained a weekly packet service with the continent and Ireland using 15 packet vessels. Their importance is evident from the fact that the first craft built in the colony of New South Wales (in 1789) was the '' Rose Hill Packet''. Over the two centuries of the sailing packet craft development, they came in various rig configurations which included:
schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...
s, schooners-brigs,
sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...
s,
cutters Cutter may refer to: Tools * Bolt cutter * Box cutter, aka Stanley knife, a form of utility knife * Cigar cutter * Cookie cutter * Glass cutter * Meat cutter * Milling cutter * Paper cutter * Side cutter * Cutter, a type of hydraulic rescue to ...
,
brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the ...
s,
brigantine A brigantine is a two-masted sailing vessel with a fully square-rigged foremast and at least two sails on the main mast: a square topsail and a gaff sail mainsail (behind the mast). The main mast is the second and taller of the two masts. Older ...
s, luggers, feluccas,
galley A galley is a type of ship that is propelled mainly by oars. The galley is characterized by its long, slender hull, shallow draft, and low freeboard (clearance between sea and gunwale). Virtually all types of galleys had sails that could be used ...
s, xebecs, barques and their ultimate development in the
clipper A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century merchant sailing vessel, designed for speed. Clippers were generally narrow for their length, small by later 19th century standards, could carry limited bulk freight, and had a large total sail area. "C ...
ships. Earlier they were also known as dispatch boats, but the service was also provided by privateers during time of war, and on occasion chartered private yachts. News of "record passages" was eagerly awaited by the public, and the craft's captain and crew were often celebrated in the press. Behind this search for sailing faster than the wind however lay the foundations for a development in naval architecture and its science which would serve until the appearance of the steam vessels. In 1863, during the Civil War, the packet boat ''Marshall'' carried the body of Confederate General
Stonewall Jackson Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson (January 21, 1824 – May 10, 1863) was a Confederate general during the American Civil War, considered one of the best-known Confederate commanders, after Robert E. Lee. He played a prominent role in nearl ...
from Lynchburg to his home in
Lexington, Virginia Lexington is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 7,320. It is the county seat of Rockbridge County, although the two are separate jurisdictions. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines ...
for burial.


Canal packet boats

The American canal packet boats were typically narrow (about ) to accommodate canals, but might be long. When the Erie Canal opened in New York state in 1825 along the Mohawk River, demand quickly rose for travelers to be accommodated. Canal packet boats included cabin space for up to 60 passengers. Unlike European and American sailing vessels, that sought to attain greater speed under sail, the canal packet boats were drawn through the Erie Canal by teams of two or three horses or mules. Compared to overland travel, the boats cut journey time in half and were much more comfortable. Travelers could get from New York City to Buffalo in ten days, with a combination of sailing and packet boats. Some passengers took the boats to see both the Erie Canal and the natural landscapes. Significantly, thousands of others used packet boats to emigrate to Ohio and other parts of the
Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...
. These boats were also instrumental in the settling of and travel within Upstate New York through the branch canals such as the Chenango Canal. Packet boats were also popular along the James River and Kanawha Canal in Virginia, allowing travel beyond the falls upriver.


Atlantic packet ships

Packets were the predecessors of the twentieth-century
ocean liner An ocean liner is a passenger ship primarily used as a form of transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). Ca ...
and were the first to sail between American and European ports on regular schedules. The first company, the Black Ball Line (later the "Old Line") began operating 1 January 1818, offering a monthly service between New York and Liverpool with four ships. In 1821, Byrnes, Grimble & Co. inaugurated the
Red Star Line of Liverpool Packets Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondary ...
, with the four ships ''Panther, Hercules, Manhattan'' and ''Meteor.'' In 1822, Messrs Fish, Grinnell, & Co. began the Swallowtail Line, known as the "Fourth Line of Packets for New York," their first ships being the ''Silas Richards, Napoleon, George,'' and ''York'', which soon moved to bi-weekly service. By 1825, vessels were advertised as leaving New York on the 8th and leaving Liverpool on the 24th of every month. Their actual schedules eventually varied, sometimes wildly, due to weather and other conditions.


Mail steamer

''Mail steamers'' were
steamship A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...
s which carried the mail across waterways, such as across an ocean or between islands, primarily during the 19th century and early 20th century, when the cost of sending a letter was declining to the point an ordinary person could afford the cost of sending a letter across great distances. In addition to carrying mail, most mail steamers carried passengers or cargo since the revenue from the mail service, if any, was insufficient by itself to pay for the cost of its travel. However, the advantage for a steamship carrying mail was that its arrival would be advertised in advance in the newspapers, thus giving it "free advertising" as a travel option for passengers or cargo. In most cases, mail carried by mail steamers was delivered to the post office to which it was addressed. In some cases, the incoming mail would be advertised in the local newspaper for pickup at the post office or at the steamship's office for a fee, if not already fee-paid. Occasionally, because of political instability when a post office could not provide normal services, incoming mail from a mail steamer would be delivered to a local delivery service, which would deliver the mail and charge the addressee an extra fee for the service. When this occurred, the local delivery service would place its own local service stamp or mark on the envelope when the extra fee was paid.


Universal Postal Union regulations

Mail carried by these steamers – sometimes known as paquebot mail – was subject to various regulations by the governments involved as well as the Universal Postal Union's (UPU) regulations stated at the UPU Vienna Conference of 1891.


Aircraft namesake

The C-82 Packet twin-engined, twin-boom cargo aircraft designed and built by Fairchild Aircraft was named as a tribute to the packet boat. It was used by the United States Army Air Forces and the successor United States Air Force following World War II.


Commerce and journalism

Receiving information as quickly as possible—whether regarding particulars about trade, foreign markets, decision-making, professional partnerships, business documents, legal contracts, personal letters and political, government and military news—was of urgent importance to 19th century commerce. Industry and business made special arrangements to beat their competitors so that sailing ships, especially packet ships involved in the
packet trade Generally, packet trade is any regularly scheduled cargo, passenger and mail trade conducted by ship. The ships are called "packet boats" as their original function was to carry mail. A "packet ship" was originally a vessel employed to carry post ...
, emerged as the central information superhighway of the era, and for the development of journalism as well. For instance, in late January 1840, the American Packet ship ''Patrick Henry'' arrived ahead of schedule and beat the competition to deliver the news from the continent for eager American readers. ''The Morning Herald (New York)'', 1 February, on the front page, reported: "The foreign news given today is highly important. Yesterday afternoon, about half past three, we received it at this office being a full hour before any of the Wall street papers had — and by five oclock we issued an Extra, to gratify the immense crowd that surrounded our office. One of our clippers left town at 10 o'clock, and boarded the ''Patrick Henry'' outside the bar at about one o'clock." The news was advertised as "Ten Days Later From England—Highly Important" and included articles about war preparations by Russia, Queen Victoria's marriage that month, meetings of Parliament and the French Chamber, and the French King's speech. "By the arrival of the Patrick Henry, Captain Delano, we have received immense files of English papers and periodicals, due to the 25th London, 26th from Liverpool and 23rd from Paris…Neither the ''Cambridge'' nor the ''Independence'' had arrived out on the 26th of Dec. The ''Patrick Henry'' had a fine run of nine days to the long(itude) of 38, where she took, on the 4th inst, strong westerly gales, which prevailed since that time without change." Improvements in the speed of that communication was crucial for many commercial, financial and shipping business activities—speedier information made capital move faster, directly affecting world trade. In 1840, the ''Patrick Henry'' was among twenty sailing packet ships on the New York–Liverpool run, and notably among the speediest. The short round trips, however, did not depend on speed, but rather changes in the schedule. Efficiency may have been improved by tightening schedules, but this may have exacerbated delays and errors of judgment. For westbound sailings, there was a high risk of disaster. Nearly one packet in six was totally lost in service. This means that out of 6,000 crossings, about 22 ended in such wrecks. More than 600 British ships, of all types, were lost each year in between 1833 and 1835 and 1841 and 1842. The loss of lives varied between 1,450 and 1,560. By the time of the maiden voyage of the ''Patrick Henry'', in 1839, packet captains had begun taking more risks against their competitors as steamships were coming into service. Indeed most shipwrecks took place during the period when the competition between sail and steam was hardest. From a mail, business and journalism transmission point of view, the trend was most alarming.
Between 1838 and 1847 no less than 21 mail-carrying ships were lost on the North Atlantic route—two each year on average. Two of the ships were Falmouth packets and two were steamers, while 17 were American sailing packets. Eight were on the New York–Liverpool route, two on the Boston–Liverpool route, two on the New York–London route, and five on the New York–Havre route. Six of the ships just disappeared, and were lost with all hands. It is notable that two out of every three wrecks took place in November–February, indicating that the packet captains took too heavy risks, especially during the rough winter sailings. The only precautionary measure to ensure solid business information transmission across the Atlantic was to send duplicates. This was very typical during the shift period. The duplicates also ensured the fastest possible dispatch of information.
Most mail—especially eastwards—was still carried by sailing ships during the first decade after the advent of the transatlantic steamship service. Even if the size of the sailing packets grew markedly, their service speed did not follow the trend after the introduction of steamships on the route in the late 1830s. After 1835, there seems to be no signs of speed improvements.
Another phenomenon which indicates that the sailing packets were losing their hold on the first class business—mail, fine freight and cabin passengers—was that they no longer cared about the punctuality of the sailing dates as much as they did in the 1830s. If the reliability of a mail ship service is measured by the regularity of sailings and the safety records, the performance of the American sailing packets in the mid-1840s was noticeably below such expectations.Laakso, 100


Gallery

File:Women's Royal Naval Service- Wrens With the Fleet Mail, England, UK, November 1944 D22595.jpg, Wrens of the British Fleet Mail load the packet boat to deliver letters and parcels to the men on board ships moored nearby File:Mailboat.Hjortøbo.jpg, Packet boat Hjortø in the harbour of Svendborg, Denmark File:Inishbofin mail boat, Dun Aengus at sea, August 1994 - Flickr - sludgegulper.jpg, The Dun Aengus Mail boat sailing from Cleggan to Inishbofin, Ireland File:RochesterCanal RochesterNY.jpg, Packet boats on the Genesee River, with the Rochester skyline in the background, USA File:Mailboat on Skaneateles Lake from Clift Park.jpg, The Skaneateles Lake mailboat docked at Clift Park in Skaneateles, New York, USA


See also

*
Allan Line Royal Mail Steamers The Allan Shipping Line was started in 1819, by Captain Alexander Allan of Saltcoats, Ayrshire, trading and transporting between Scotland and Montreal, a route which quickly became synonymous with the Allan Line. By the 1830s the company had offic ...
* Black Ball Line (trans-Atlantic packet) * Flagey building in Brussels, nicknamed "Packet Boat" *
Ocean liner An ocean liner is a passenger ship primarily used as a form of transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). Ca ...
* Pony Express *
Postal history Postal history is the study of postal systems and how they operate and, or, the study of the use of postage stamps and covers and associated postal artifacts illustrating historical episodes in the development of postal systems. The term is att ...
* Royal Mail Ship


References


Service (Mail)

Steamer Service

Postal Matters

Arrival of the Mail!


External links


Paquebot mail begins at sea, postmarked on land







Photographs and pictures


Woodcut print1875 photo of ''Olive'', canal freighterDriver and team
{{DEFAULTSORT:Packet Boat Packet (river transport) Age of Sail Postal history Steamships